With last night’s political outcomes in mind, which stick figure would you label as Tom Steyer and which as one of the Koch brothers?

Would the relative amounts of spending be the prime factor determining who moved the boulder?

The Koch brothers and their allies want to maintain the status quo, while Steyer and others seeking a political path to a post-carbon economy have an epic challenge in trying to prod Americans out of a fossil-fueled comfort zone that took a century to form.

I’m sure Steyer is in this for the long haul and it’s clear that he, like any smart investor, is hedging his environmental bets, putting money into far more than political campaigns.

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By 2050 or so, the human population is expected to pass nine billion. Those billions will be seeking food, water and other resources on a planet where humans are already shaping climate and the web of life. Dot Earth was created by Andrew Revkin in October 2007 -- in part with support from a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship -- to explore ways to balance human needs and the planet's limits.